Israel News

Tel Aviv — With the emergence of a lewd audio tape in which Donald Trump brags about sexual assault, the wheels are seemingly coming off of the Republican nominee’s campaign in the U.S. As Republicans disavow him and his poll numbers tank, Trump is talking of a “rigged” election and vast conspiracy to prevent him from reaching the Oval Office.

The sound of a newlywed’s world falling apart rung out over Israel’s national cemetery on Sunday. On this hill where, just nine days earlier, the 93-year-old Shimon Peres was laid to rest with a most dignified ceremony after a full life, it was the burial of a young man murdered in his prime.

The business conference last week at the Tel Aviv five-star hotel had a familiar sound: wall-to-wall praise for Israel’s technology prowess and tributes to the creative juices of the so-called “start-up” nation.

Jerusalem — It was, perhaps, his last gift to us. Even in death, Shimon Peres inspired us. Though no longer among us, he managed to remind us that what we have built here is extraordinary — not only in our own minds, but in the minds of much of the Western world.

About three and a half years ago, Micah Goodman, a popular Israeli philosopher, educator and author in his 40s, received a phone call from Shimon Peres out of the blue. The then-president of Israel said he had read Goodman’s best-selling book, “Maimonides and the Book That Changed Judaism: Secrets of ‘The Guide for the Perplexed,’” and wanted to discuss it with him.